The Crisis at the Border—We Can Fix It
By Rep. Dusty Johnson
There have been more than 5 million illegal crossings of our southern border since President Biden took office. Title 42 ended May 11, a policy that has allowed border patrol to turn migrants away due to public health concerns. Fentanyl is flowing across the border in record numbers.
President Biden’s open-border policies have created a national security crisis, drug crisis, and crime crisis across America. I’ve joined my colleagues many times urging the President and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Mayorkas to put a plan in place to secure our border when Title 42 ended. We’ve known the end date of Title 42 for years, even providing an extension to allow more time for a plan to develop.
May 11 has come and gone, and the Biden Administration has yet to implement legitimate policies to secure the border. This week, Texas Governor Greg Abbott and even Democrat Governor Katie Hobbs of Arizona expressed concern about the influx of migrants crossing the border into their states. They cannot ignore the situation at the border, and neither can we. Every state has become a border state.
House Republicans have been working on a plan to secure the border for months and it passed the House on Thursday. OurSecure the Border Act would put policies in place that would do the following:
- Restart construction of the border wall using funds appropriated by Congress that President Biden has refused to spend
- Implement border enforcement policies, infrastructure, and advanced technology to help Border Patrol Agents
- Increase the number of Border Patrol agents
- End catch and release policies
- Reinstates the Remain in Mexico policy provisions
- End the Administration’s abuse of executive immigration authority
Politics has been played long enough—former Speaker Pelosi blocked border solutions from coming to the floor the last four years. The crisis is real. We must repair the situation at the border to ensure America is a nation that’s safe.
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